


next door

by crowdragon



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowdragon/pseuds/crowdragon
Summary: Kakashi helps Gai move after the loss of his dad.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 6
Kudos: 60





	next door

It’s a little before sundown and Gai is sat in the middle of the kitchen staring at five open cabinets full of dishes with a couple of empty boxes ready next to him. He’d gotten all of his own belongings packed in a whirlwind earlier that morning, but moving on to the rest of the house was the next unusually difficult stumbling block. He can’t remember ever procrastinating on anything in his life so far, but the past two weeks have thrown him for a loop. A clock ticking in the living room is almost deafeningly loud, counting out the fleeing seconds. He’s supposed to be in his own apartment by tomorrow morning. He can’t bring himself to put one more step towards leaving.

He’d been alone in the house since…since two months ago. Before, the little cabin out in the woods had always felt cozy and vibrant and welcoming, a center of activity to him despite being so out of the way on the edge of the village. It had never been this quiet. He couldn’t remember hearing that clock until recently. He blinks slowly at the dishes again, waiting for them to magically pop into the boxes on their own while his eyes are shut, perfectly sorted and stacked. 

A while back a messenger from the Hokage’s office had stopped in to inform him he’d been placed in the apartment building the village reserved for active-duty orphans. He’d already gone to look at it. State accommodations weren’t known for their comfort, and the shabby one-room box he’d been handed the key to was no exception. He figured it was lucky he preferred to spend all his time training outside anyway. 

He had no clue what he would need on his own in such a tiny space. It’s not like he had anyone around to tell him what cookware he would need or how many towels were reasonable for one person to have. How much would even fit in the new place anyway?

Maybe he should just take one of everything since it was just gonna be him. But which ones? And what would happen to anything he left behind? He didn’t want to think about everything being tossed out. His eyes start stinging in the corners again, and he shakes his head, clearing out that loop of thought before he starts crying again. He only just got over the headache from the last time, and he doesn’t have enough time left to lay in bed and rest another one off. He also doesn’t have the time to sit and agonize over plates, yet here he is.

He jumps up, fist clenched in determination. If he can’t fill one box in the next 30 minutes, then he’ll have to move to the linen closet and pack five boxes in the same amount of time!

Actually he doesn’t think he would need five boxes for linens. He certainly wouldn’t need five boxes worth of linens anyway. Would he? 

He sighs, dropping his shoulders back down. This is getting absolutely nowhere.

Just when he begins considering doing the whole task blindfolded and just throwing everything wherever, a knock at the door clatters through the rooms to his unsuspecting eardrums. He bolts to the door and throws it open before he can even register the surprise at having visitors. He’d figured his friends were all probably too busy with regular missions, so he’d been giving them space while he wrangled with the move himself. 

Genma and Asuma are standing shoulder to shoulder on the front porch. 

“Yo, how’s packing going?” Genma asks mildly around the ever present senbon in his teeth, hands in his sweater pockets. 

Asuma’s eyes flick over Gai’s shoulders. “Doesn’t look like it’s going at all.” He raises his eyebrows at the usually overeager Gai in front of him. “Want help?” 

Gai flails in protest. “Oh, no there’s no need at all my friends, I’ve got it all under control here-” 

He’s interrupted by Asuma’s shoulder colliding with his as Genma shoves him bodily past Gai into the house. “Told him he’d say he was fine. Let’s get to it anyway we’re losing daylight here.”

Gai sputters a bit, and snaps his head around to question the two of them. “Wait who told yo-” A hand rests lightly on his shoulder and he whips his head back around, nearly crashing his head into his dear rival’s face in the process. 

Kakashi’s eyes crinkle into a small smile above his mask. “I was hoping to spare you an all-nighter here but…” He glances over the completely untouched possessions he can see through the door, and the stack of still-flat boxes-to-be propped against the far wall. “Well, we’ll do what we can now that we’re here.” He steers an indignant Gai back inside, closing the door behind them with his heel. 

While he’s a bit confused by everyone’s sudden appearance, Gai can’t deny the rush of happy familiarity he feels at the sight of his rival. He drops his stubborn denial of his current circumstances and grins sheepishly back at the three of them. “Alright, you win! While I certainly could accomplish this task alone, I’m not going to turn down such generous support!” He claps Kakashi on the back, tugging him into a one-armed hug. Of gratitude of course. 

Kakashi huffs, a little exaggeratedly, and pushes Gai back off him, though he gives his shoulder a tiny squeeze back before doing so. “Alright, alright, get to it though.” He picks up the unfolded boxes and shoves them toward a stationary and bored Genma. “Here you start putting these together. Asuma can bring any furniture you need over closer to the door so its ready to haul out, and I’ll help you sort things.” 

Asuma groans, muttering something about ‘always having to be the muscle’, but he dutifully begins waddling the kitchen table over anyway. 

Gai turns back to face the looming cabinets from before and tries not to let his spirits fall again at the sight of them. “I don’t even know where to start.” He grumbles. 

Kakashi steps past him and shuts all but one of the offending cabinets. “Basics first. How much do you cook anyway?” He asks, cocking his head slightly. 

Gai freezes as a wave of memory smacks him over the head: his dad did all the cooking for the two of them, everything rich with spice and packed with protein and vegetables from the container garden on the porch. He helped chop things and absorbed random tidbits of knowledge, like how peppers and ginger were excellent energizers, that garlic would help ward off small colds and fevers, and so on.

But Kakashi is still staring at him, waiting for some sort of answer, so Gai shakes himself and moves for the jars of spices on the counter instead. He’s at least certain he wants to bring those with him, and he starts stuffing them into a box. 

Kakashi shrugs and starts stacking pans into another box on his own. “I mean I guess I cook enough to figure that out for you.” 

Gai’s over-developed challenge senses prickle at that. He whirls around to face him, nearly toppling both their boxes. “I bet I’ll cook more than you do by the end of the month!” 

Kakashi looks at him wearily. “How would we even judge that?” Gai just grins back at him.

Genma leans over their shoulders. “I’ll volunteer as judge if I’m getting free food. One time offer though, your challenges are weird. Oh, boxes are done, give me something else to do.” 

Kakashi nods somewhere vaguely off frame. “Go find some paper or towels or something, we need to wrap up anything breakable.” He orders.

Genma ambles off to do just that. “Y’know Kakashi if you wanted alone time with Gai you could’ve just come here yourself.” He calls back over his shoulder.

“Well, somebody has to do all the grunt work, Genma.” Asuma huffs while he tries to squeeze a mattress around him through the hallway. 

As they go, Gai finds it easier to focus on the task at hand with Kakashi there to jab him whenever he starts to waffle over something, or gets lost in his own thoughts. They move to the living room and Asuma collapses on the floor next to them, having moved the last piece of necessary furniture over by the door. (Not that there’s much, since the apartment is going to be pretty small.)

The evening passes into night, and into late night, and at 4 AM Gai is still trying to frantically gather every knick knack and picture frame he can find into any available box he can. By this point, Genma and Asuma have both passed out on the soon to be abandoned couch, which Gai is trying really hard to not think too much about. Kakashi is still patiently carrying on with him, but he can tell that he’s exhausted too.

Gai huffs and falls dramatically over the box in front of him. “I’m sorry you’re still here helping with all of this when I should have had it finished already myself. You should go home and rest, rival, you need it.” 

Kakashi gently knocks his head with one of the books he’s putting away. “You need to sleep just as much I do. And don’t worry so much about it, I’ve done this before myself.”  
  
Gai jerks his head up. “I thought you were still in your family’s old house?”

Kakashi shakes his head, expression flat. “I did for awhile, but Minato-sensei had me move into an apartment like yours when I joined his team. Something about shinobi living alone during a war being too risky.”

“Kakashi do you mean we’re going to be neighbors?” He practically throws himself over the boxes between them and into the other boy’s personal space.

He holds his hands up in front of him, leaning back. “I don’t know about neighbors, but yeah, I think it’s the same building.”

Gai settles back, excitement bubbling in his chest. But…

“This all feels kind of weird.”

Kakashi blinks at him. “Weird how?”

Gai shrugs, fixes his eyes on the clock that’s finally shut up, sitting nestled in a box of photos from the wall, of him and his dad grinning brightly up from how many years ago at him now.

“It’s like I’ve been stuck in place this whole time even though I don’t know how to stop moving and also I’m so excited thinking about all the cool stuff I’m gonna do with my friends and you after tomorrow but also I feel like maybe I’m not supposed to be yet but every thing’s stopped but it hasn’t.” He spills all at once in a rush, like if he doesn’t get the words out they’ll cease to exist.

Kakashi’s shoulders fall forward a little bit. “I know.” Gai thinks his eyes soften a little at the corners but maybe he’s imagining it. And he knows that he knows.

But neither of them have figured out what they’re supposed to do about it yet, so they do the only thing they can for now and finish taping up the last boxes before collapsing into a sleepy heap next to their friends. Maybe figuring it out together is the whole point, he thinks as drifts off into whatever short sleep he can.

* * *

His first morning in the new apartment he steps out into the hall, eyes a little red. It’s all too awful and unfamiliar and he’s still too alone, and that’s going to hurt for awhile. At the end of the hall Kakashi stands in front of his own door looking back at him. Gai shoots him the flashiest Nice Guy pose he can, and gets a little thumbs-up back in return.

They’ll just have to look out for each other from here on out.


End file.
